How to move/copy files from folder and subfolders to a new folder?

Hello,

I am trying to move/copy files from a main folder with multiple subfolders to a new folder.

The code below runs but I receive this error when I use this is in the loop...

for k = 1:numel(FilesName):
...    
Error using movefile
No matching files were found.

Here is my attempt...

clear all, close all,

% Folders/subfolders where files are located
% I want to move only the .png files located under D:\2015\ 
myDir = dir('D:\2015\**\**\*.png');

% New destination folder
destFolder = 'D:\NewFolder';

%Cell array with file names
FilesName = {myDir.name};

for k = 1:numel(FilesName)
   sourceFile = fullfile(myDir(k).folder, myDir(k).name);
   movefile(sourceFile, destFolder);
end

whos
  Name               Size                Bytes  Class     Attributes
  FilesName          1x5022            1051326  cell                
  destFolder         1x12                   24  char                
  k                  1x1                     8  double              
  myDir           5022x1               4280856  struct   

However, when I use... for k = 1:3:numel(FilesName) the code does what I want (move all .png files under folder D:\2015\...

My question is why myDir above is repeating the same file name 3 times? I believe that is because when k=2 cannot find the file as it was already moved. Then, I am obligated to skip every 3 files. Maybe I am using the wildcards in the wrong context here?

Your comments are welcome.

[dpb]

Well, it's not clear why you use

%Cell array with file names
FilesName = {myDir.name};

at all when as your whos output shows it simply duplicates all the entries that are in the dir() struct array myDir. So, more straightforward would be to write the loop index upper limit as numel(myDir). They're the same so that's not the issue; just there's no point in creating another whole array of the same information you already have.

As for the "why" Q? of there being three copies of the same file apparently -- that's going to be the result of something you've done previously, probably accidentally.

Your dir() call is over a wildcard string of two levels of subdirectories so it's going to return everything it finds there. Apparently there are multiple copies of the same file--that wouldn't be too surprising to have happened given a nested directory structure.

You'll just have to go spelunking and see what directory and file are actually returned but dir() will only return something that is there that matches the wildcard specification.

It would be less confusing probably to traverse the directory structure one subdirectory at a time instead.

[Mario]

Thank you.

As you mentioned, not need for it (FilesName = {myDir.name};).

Each folder has its own filename based on dates, so cannot be repeated. I double check in folders and there are not multiple copies of the same file.

Would be possible to have an example for "It would be less confusing probably to traverse the directory structure one subdirectory at a time instead."?

Thanks!

[dpb]

Well, that would indicate that's how many files there are in toto, then -- at least with that wildcard pattern.

Have you exhaustively verified you have the subdirectories wanted and only the subdirectories wanted?

I forget who wrote it but at least one of the other regulars here has written examples of recursive subdirectory traversing...do a search by subject for the phrase. There may also be (and almost certainly is) submissions at the File Exchange.

[Mario]

Thank you dbp for your help on this, very appreciated.

Answer 1

[Jyotsna Talluri]

To list all files with a particular extension in all folders and subfolders,you can use dir ( <path> /**/* <extension>) .In your code

myDir = dir('D:\2015\**\**\*.png')

considers each subfolder recursively in the folder D:\2015 and lists files with .png extension in all the folders and subfolders , due to which each file is listed many times. Just use

myDir = dir('D:\2015\**\*.png') 

to list all files with .png extension in all folders and subfolders in this path D:\2015

Refer to the link dir for more details

[Mario]

Thank you Jyotsna for your help on this, very appreciated.